Day 18- F.T.R.

You may be wondering what F.T.R. stands for. Well, the T stands for "the", the R for "rain" and the F, well I'm pretty sure you can figure that one out on your own. I once again awoke to find dark clouds in the sky above. At this point in the trip, I am really so fed up with all the rain. Having to ride through the rain really takes the fun out of the journey, but I guess they can't all be sunny days. It has actually been the coldest, wettest summer trip I have ever been on, and neither myself nor anyone else was expecting it.
Rain gear on and all bundled up, we left the hotel and said goodbye to South Dakota. We were in the rain from the time we started riding until about 20 miles into Wyoming, just over 2 hours later. Luckily, the skies cleared and the rest of our ride remained rain free.
The drive today was pretty dull actually. We rode just over 200 miles on a long, straight road through the grasslands of Wyoming. There really wasn't any exciting scenery, so the ride itself was pretty monotonous, but at least it wasn't raining.
The one thing we did have to contend with today was the wind. For almost the entire trip, we had some pretty strong crosswinds pushing on us, and every time a big rig would pass us from the other direction, a giant blast of air would literally push us side to side. Strong winds can actually push the bike from a few inches to a few feet across the road, so although the road was straight and boring, I still had to do a lot of concentrating to keep the bike moving straight. It certainly is tiring being battered by the wind for hours and hours, but at least it wasn't raining.
Towards the end of our journey, there were some pretty ominous and strange looking clouds in the sky above. One in particular caught my attention and I must have checked on it for over 30 minutes. I wasn't concerned that the cloud was going to rain on us, but rather that it may turn into a tornado. Luckily for us, it didn't.
We pulled into Cheyenne, Wyoming around 5 in the afternoon and checked into our hotel. Wouldn't you know it, a couple hours later the TV screens announced a tornado warning! Fortunately the tornado never materialized, and we remained safe.
We all met for our final dinner together on the trip, as tomorrow myself and the ladies fly home to San Diego. The rest of the guys will continue onward through Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and back into California over the next few days. I wish I could stay and finish the trip with them, but as I said before, I've got an exam in Sacramento to get to, where hopefully it won't be raining.